Katherine Dreier, a co-founder in 1920 of The Société Anonyme Museum of Modern Art, gave an ethical legacy to my great-grandmother and a cultural legacy to the United States. The year Dreier deeded her collection to Yale University –1941 — she also wrote to my great-grandmother Ruth Seely Preston. In her letter, she enclosed an announcement by The Société Anonyme of giving their collection of modern art to Yale University. She also enclosed a Bulletin of the Associates in Fine Arts at Yale University showing and describing pieces from the collection. Most important to my family, she enclosed a personal statement certifying my great-grandmother’s birth, for that was what Ruth had written Dreier to request. Of the enclosed documents, Dreier wrote: “These you can show to the authorities if necessary to show them my standing in the community.” Since I found these documents among my grandmother’s memoirs, I have scanned and uploaded them in the interest of historical preservation. Here they are:
Related Articles
- Greene, D. (2012, January 30). An ethical legacy from Katherine Dreier. Retrieved from danielgreene.com
- Schwendener, M. (2012, December 21). A vast collection that predates MoMA: A review of ‘Société Anonyme,’ at the Yale University Art Gallery. New York Times. Retrieved from http://nytimes.com
- The Katherine S. Dreier bequest. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.guggenheim.org
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